The practice is common among local Chinese officials who fear reprisals if they reveal embarrassing or negative statistics.

Soon afterward, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a circular warning that local authorities would be punished if they did not give an accurate report on flood numbers.

Flood waters washed away roads, cut power supplies and submerged part of China's main north-south railway line in a swath of destruction that stretched across the south.

Storm-ravaged areas faced new problems this week as a heat wave baked the region, with temperatures rising as high as 38 C (100 F) Thursday in Fujian.

Typhoons hit China every summer, causing hundreds of deaths. The country expects more storms than usual this year due to an unusually warm current off its Pacific coast and high temperatures on the Tibetan plateau.